The invention relates to apparatus for treating selected sections or regions of various commodities with a gaseus fluid. More particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus which can be utilized with advantage for the treatment of packets containing arrays of plain or filter cigarettes or other products of the tobacco processing industry. Still more particularly, the invention relates to improvements in apparatus wherein a rotary (such as indexible) conveyor is provided with pockets or other types of receptacles for commodities which should be treated by air or another gaseous fluid, for example, to avoid a defacing and/or other damage during transport along a predetermined path, e.g., for the purpose of effecting a setting of freshly applied films of adhesive.
It is known to transfer block-shaped (such as brick-shaped) packets, wherein arrays of, for example, twenty plain or filter cigarettes or other types of rod-shaped smokers' products are confined in so-called hinged-lid containers from a first conveyor (e.g., an endless belt or chain conveyor which advances freshly converted blanks of cardboard or the like past one or more adhesive applicators of the type known as pasters) into the pockets of a second conveyor wherein the freshly applied adhesive is expected to set, e.g., to reliably bond overlapping panels of sidewalls of successive containers to each other. The first conveyor can receive arrays of cigarettes or the like from a further conveyor wherein or whereon the arrays are confined in converted blanks of metallic foil or the like to form with such converted blanks a succession of brick-shaped assemblies ready to be confined in suitably configurated blanks which consist of cardboard or plastic sheet material and are folded and/or otherwise treated during conversion into hinged-lid containers surrounding the aforementioned assemblies. Certain overalapping panels of the containers are bonded to each other by a suitable adhesive which must be allowed to set while the mutually inclined and/or overlapping walls, flaps, tucks and other constituents of the freshly formed containers (packets) are held against any appreciable movement relative to each other in order to ensure that successive packets of a short or long series of packets will be imparted with identical sizes and identical shapes. All such operations must be carried out at an extremely high speed if a packing machine is to process the output of at least one modern high-speed cigarette making or filter tipping machine.
The next step in the making of customary packets of for example twenty elongated rod-shaped smokers' products each can involve confining successive packets in transparent outer envelopes of cellophane or another suitable wrapping material; such transparent envelopes are often provided with conventional tear strips serving to facilitate rapid removal of an outer envelope in order to afford access to the hinged lid of the packet.